Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 3).djvu/198

178 "Ah! my time is not valuable," replied the man, with a melancholy smile. "Still, it belongs to government, and I ought not to waste it; but having received the signal that I might rest for an hour" (here he glanced at the sun-dial, for there was everything in the inclosure of Montlhéry, even a sun-dial), "and having ten minutes before me, and my strawberries being ripe, when a day longer—by the bye, sir, do you think dormice eat them?"

"Indeed, I should think not," replied Monte-Cristo; "dormice are bad neighbors for us who do not eat them preserved, as the Romans did."

"What! did the Romans eat them!" said the gardener—"eat dormice?"

"I have read so in Petronius," said the count.

"Really! they can't be nice, though they do say 'as fat as a dormouse.' It is not a wonder they are fat, sleeping all the blessed day, and only waking to eat all night. Listen. Last year I had four apricots—they stole one; I had one nectarine, only one—well, sir, they ate half of it on the wall; a splendid nectarine—I never ate a better."

"You ate it?"

"That is to say, the half that was left—you understand; it was exquisite, sir. Ah, those gentlemen never choose the worst morsels; like Mère Simon's son, who had not chosen the worst strawberries. But this year," continued the horticulturist, "I'll take care it shall not happen, even if I should be forced to sit up the whole night to watch when the strawberries are ripe."

Monte-Cristo had seen enough. Every man has a devouring passion in his heart, as every fruit has its worm; that of the man at the telegraph was horticulture. He began gathering the vine-leaves which screened the sun from the grapes, and won the heart of the gardener.

"Did you come here, sir, to see the telegraph?" he said.

Yes, if it be not contrary to the rules."

"Oh, no," said the gardener; "there are no orders against doing so, since there is nothing dangerous, and no one knows what we are saying."

"Yes; I have been told," said the count, "that you do not yourselves understand the signals you repeat."

Certainly, sir; and that is what I like best," said the man, smiling.

"Why do you like that best?"

"Because then I have no responsibility. I am a machine then, and nothing else; and so long as I work, nothing more is required of me."

"Is it possible," said Monte-Cristo to himself, "that I can have met with a man that has no ambition? That would spoil my plans."

"Sir," said the gardener, glancing at the sun-dial, "the ten minutes